Hydrotherapy is the treatment of diseases or ailments of patients by the external use of water or other fluids. In hydrotherapeutic treatments, agitation of a fluid bath is often desired to effect massage and/or stimulation of that portion of the patient's body submerged in the bath. Such hydrotherapeutic treatments may be used, for example, to treat or provide relief from various back or muscle ailments afflicting the patient.
The patient first may be exposed to hydrotherapy in a hospital or similar institution where hydrotherapeutic treatments may be prescribed by the patient's attending physician and conducted on a regular basis. Equipment employed in some hospitals is known to consist of a large tank containing water which is agitated by large pumps mounted at each end of the tank. The patient is then suspended on a litter and lowered into the tub for treatment.
After the patient is discharged from the hospital, continuation of the hydrotherapeutic treatments may still be desirable. However, the equipment needed to conduct the treatments such as employed in the hospital generally is not readily available for home use principally because of its size and expense and the need for attendants to assist the patient. Therefore, the patient may be faced with the decision either to discontinue treatments or to travel to the hospital for treatment on an outpatient basis.
Other equipment is known which creates a whirlpool effect in a water bath and some forms of such equipment may be used in conjunction with conventional home bathtubs. Such equipment normally comprises an electric motor encased in a suitable housing which is adapted to be placed or mounted on the edge of a bathtub with a pump or nozzle end extending into the water for agitation of the same. One drawback with such equipment is that the electric components thereof being in close proximity to the water present the possibility of injury to the patient by electrocution. Another drawback of such equipment is that uniform agitation of the water in the bathtub is not provided because generation of the agitation occurs only in one location, i.e., at the nozzle end, with the intensity of agitation diminishing as the distance from the nozzle end increases. Moreover, such devices, although not as expensive as those employed in hospitals, are still costly.
In using this equipment for the lengthy treatment time normally required, the temperature of the water contained in the tub or tank will steadily drop and will reach a point which is uncomfortable to the patient. It is, therefore, desirable to provide for heating the water in the tub while agitating the same. Moreover, it is desirable to heat the water without introducing electrical heating elements into or in close proximity to the water.